I built brand teams at Moleskine and Greenhouse Software. I founded a performance festival and have a background in the arts. I currently focus on helping businesses grow in an age of off-the-shelf-ventures as founder of Upright Brand. Ask me about: Brand Strategy, Marketing, Events, & Communications.
I have hired various levels of marketers and also worked at a startup that sold a SaaS recruiting platform which gave me insight into how the leading recruiters and hiring managers think.
I my experience entry-level hires in general need to energy, intelligence, focus, and a willingness to learn. Character and temperament is more important than specific skills. They may still be figuring out what they want to do with their lives so a marketing background is a nice to have.
From working at a recruiting software startup, I can tell you that all hiring managers are busy and might not have the ideal amount of support during the hiring process. They want the hire to be a good candidate but mostly to make it easy on them.